dorner's pickup was found. this afternoon, dorner surfaced again. >> police believe dorner staged a home invasion and stole the vehicle of the residents who gave them a description. 27 miles away, fish and game officers spotted the car, tried to pull it over, and exchanged gunfire with dorner who ran into the woods. making his way to a remote cabin, which police have now surrounded. two officers have been shot and are being treated. in l.a., police were asked what they would say if he was listening. >> enough is enough. it's time to turn yourself in. it's time to stop the bloodshed. >> the faa ordered media helicopters out of the area so we can't show you what's happening there. traffic is clogged as police search every vehicle just in case. >> just in case they haven't confirmed absolutely that it is dorner in the cabin. cbs reports that dorner is heavily armed approaching the cabin extremely dangerous. police called in major backup, major fire power.

earlier reports that dorner has hostages remain unconfirmed. if it does, we'll let you know right away. >> it could be a short night, long night, certainly a very intense night. >> it could be over in seconds, it could be over in weeks. >> we'll talk soon. our other big story tonight, a university of maryland graduate student goes on a shocking arson murder and suicide rampage targeting his college roommate. tonight, we have news on the background of the mentally ill shooter, including his surprising ties to our nation's space agency. scott broom brings us the latest. >> the whole thing -- >> shocked, neighboring students said bullets flew through a window and into a neighboring home. >> i waited for gunfire to stop. g behind the trigger of a 9 mm semiauto handgun was dayvon green, a 23-year-old university of maryland graduate engineering student and self-

described brainiac seen on a nasa website where he was an intern focused on systems eny nearing. one of his roommates woke up to the flames. >> lit fires all around the house, which lured his two roommates outside. the trio went to put out the fires together. green pulled a gun from his waistband. shot one roommate to death, and wounded another as he fled. green then ran into the backyard and shoot himself to death. julie parker speaks for prince georges county police. >> detectives discovered a 9 mm handgun next to the gunman's body. they also discovered a bag of weapons to include a baseball bat, a machete, a semi- automatic handgun, and ammunition. the shooter had been suffering from a mental illness. >> it is an incredible tragedy. >> university president, wallace lowe said the

university was not aware of green's troubled mental history. >> what led up to this? was there a precipitating event? >> they had been here once before for a burglary call in october and they got a bizarre 911 hangup in january. neighboring students said there was no apparent problem at the house. >> it is definitely a shock. >> you can't see stuff like this coming. i don't think any one of their roommates would have expected them to pull out a gun. >> so, a brilliant engineering student with mental illness in possession of not one, but two handguns, late this afternoon, prince georges county police report thad one of those guns was an oozy style weapon. in college park, scott broom, wusa9. >> thank you, scott. a couple of hours from now, president obama will be on capitol hill to deliver the annual state of the union address. white house aids say improving the economy and creating jobs will be the center piece of his

remarks to congress and the country. >> as he outlays his plan tonight, everyone will see that if we work together, we really will have a robust future. we can build that middle class. >> the president will talk about gun violence and his plans to withdraw thousands more troops from afghanistan. florida senator, marco rubio, will deliver the official republican response and we'll have it here tonight at wusa9. >> of course, we are covering the president's address all night long and derek mcginty is live on capitol hill with more from there. >> as you mentioned, lesli, the president's focus will be jobs, the economy, manufacturing, economic growth, and plans to lay out more detail about his agenda for those things. he also said in an excerpt we got our hands on earlier, that nothing he is going to do is going to add anything to our debt which is an interesting comment, considering all the battle over sequestration and the debt limit and everything else the congress has to deal with. joining me right now is

virginia congress member, gerry connolly, he's a democrat who represents parts of virginia. when you hear the president make a statement that nothing he is going to do is going to add to the debt, is that an olive branch to the other side? >> i think it's very significant. frankly to stimulate the economy, to create jobs, generally it requires an investment. the fact he's going to have spending neutral proposals is a huge concession to the other side. >> he'll have taxes to go ahong with them, which your colleagues said they are through with raising taxes. is there any wiggle room? >> i think there is when we look at revenue enhancements and i'm still hopeful the republicans can be brought along on that on a reasonable basis. you cannot continue to have massive spending cuts and not negatively effect the economy. >> let's get back to these gun control issue, which is huge today. we have two shooting incidents going on in different parts of our country right now. you invited virginia tech

family member to sit beside you. obviously you are trying to make a statement about what you would like to see happen federally. >> i think reasonable measures protect the public from gun violence are long overdue. >> what do you mean by reasonable? >> i think limiting magazines. i think universal background checks and preventing weapons in certain public places are a minimum and they don't threaten anybody's second amendment rights. >> what about the ban on assault weapons? >> it's only for one purpose. >> okay, at this point, should the president's tone be a little more measured than he has been since his reelection where he has been, take no prisoners? we'll do some things my way. republicans complained he has not been in the bipartisan spirit. >> yeah, i don't know that i agree with that. i don't think he has had the take no prisoners attitude, but he is reelected. he has a mandate. he beat his opponent by 5

million votes. i think that has to be recognized and respected. >> speak to the 48, 49 percent of americans that didn't vote. >> i think he will and i think he does and he makes a lot of effort to do just that. you'll hear that again tonight. >> gerry connolly, we appreciate you a great deal. thanks for dropping by. all right, i'm derek mcginty live for wusa9. back to you. >> derek, thank you. tonight there's a lot of tough talk about north korea and its latest nuclear test. north korea confirms yes, we tested a nuclear device. don't be surprised if we test some more. china pretty much the only friend north korea has, we told you not to do it and you did it anyway, don't do it again. the white house calls it provocative and south korea says there must be consequences. pope benedict steps down two weeks from thursday and the cardinals in the catholic church will then gather possibly as early as march 1 to begin the process of selecting

his successor. bruce johnson reports, there will be campaigning for the top job in the church. st. matthew's cathedral in downtown washington today, some catholics had definite ideas about what they wanted from the next pope. >> you know, change with the times. moving with the times. not to remain too conservative. >> and not to allow these liberal thoughts of people of today. >> the vatican disclosed today that pope benedict had been fit for a pacemaker a decade ago, but added the procedure had not influenced his decision to become the first pope in nearly 600 years. the last pope to resign from office was gregory. that was back in 1415. it had nothing to do with his health and everything to do with the fact that there were four popes at the time. gregory resigned to bring about unity in the church. >> basically the way it works is, the cardinals, you know,

campaign for their friends. >> a noted scholar. he says 15 days after benedict leaves office and heads to a monostary, cardinals will gather and select his replacement. >> you campaign for me and expect something in return? how does it work? >> well actually, it's wonderful thing that we have in the code of church law and that says any promise the pope makes, he does not have to follow. >> and what might american catholics think of the next pope who should be on the job before easter sunday. >> we aren't going to see radical change. they did exactly what you and i would do. they appointed people that agreed with them on the basic issues facing the church. >> bruce johnson, wusa9. >> father reid said while the catholic church has seen most of its growth in africa and latin america, he expects the new pope will come from europe, because that's where most of

the cardinals are from. there's almost no chance that the new pope will come from this country. a nice warm day today, but we have some weather changes on the way. some that topper might be just a tad bit excited about. >> a little bit. it's hard to believe we were 59 today and talking about snow tomorrow. we're looking at temperatures mild. i mean, 48 downtown. 45 in gaithersburg. it's 46 in manassas and 48 in leesburg. we'll come back and talk about when the rain rolls in and when that rain changes to snow. pledget the dow jones continues to have an impressive year. you'll find out where it finished today.

the dow continues to have a strong year after logging its best january in almost two decades, the dow closed today at over 14,000. that's the high so far. the all-time high set back in 2007 is just over 100 points

away and this latest boost was driven by two big consumer brands, avon and michael course. more than 1500 protesters took to the capitol today demanding more jobs. government employees say if congress keeps cutting government programs, it will only hurt the economy and kill jobs. they want leaders to shield them from budget cuts and protect their benefits. a new report says that our region is doing pretty much better than most parts of the country. new census figures show that 14% of washington area households have incomes that put them in the top five percent in the nation. only the metro areas of bridge port, connecticut, and san jose, california, have a higher percentage. today felt a little like spring, but winter is coming back and topper is up next with our reality check. how does a college student get out of what might be a dangerous situation?

i'm peggy fox in george mason. some an

the murder-suicide at the university of maryland may have you concerned tonight if you have a child in college or headed there. you may be wondering how to know if your child is in a bad roommate situation. peggy fox has some answers from george mason university. >> reporter: for many students

heading off to college for the first time, it's a worry wondering who their roommate will be, but these two freshman students at mason has hit it off as dorm roomies. >> she was having roommate problems and she knew my room was available. >> lauren didn't have a roommate at first, rachel needed to get out of a bad situation with hers. >> we sort of started to butt heads and got to the point, i didn't want to be in my room anymore. >> she met with her resident adviser who helped make her change. getting help is exactly what a student should do if they are bothered by another student or roommate. >> when stunteds move off campus, if they have concerns about their roommates, they can still seek help from the colleges counseling and psychological services. >> dr. adrian is the director of the cast, counseling and psychological. >> some central office where you can go if you are concerned about a student. >> a counselor with potomac psychological center. he says college students should

not ignore telltale signs of mental distress. >> for days on end, you know, that could really have a telltale sign of somebody that needs help. >> and students that meet roommates and ask questions. fairfax, wusa9. >> those signs could also be a warning for suicide and each year, about 1100 college students across the country take their own lives. george mason has a special program called mason cares that trains gate keepers to recognize the warning signs and coaches them on how to respond to students in crisis. yeah, but this has become a real transition month for us. >> it has, a little bounce with winter. we'll have tomorrow, a new

sense of snow. let's start with a live look outside. it's our michael and son weather cam and 59 was the high, 59 is the high. it's only 48 right now. dew points up to 30. a little dryer air mass, we held in the 40s downtown for lows. that's great. only about 45, 46 degrees. okay, let's talk about where the system is headed from. it is from the southeast. it looks impressive. pretty good thunderstorms and pretty heavy rain pushing into alabama and back into georgia, south of atlanta from frequent lightning strikes as well. now the clouds are spreading pretty far to the north. high clouds come in shortly and they will thicken up and lower as we get into the dawn hours. again, the good news is, it is a dry morning commute tomorrow. so just chilly tonight. primarily above 32. i mean, below freezing tonight or tomorrow night for that matter. that is figuring into how much snow is going to fall. a dry morning commute, and snow

by evening, maybe not south and east of town. and up anne arundel county. by the way, it may snow heavily for one or two hour period, so don't freak out. we may get a band rolling through, but temperatures above freezing. temperatures above freezing, therefore a trace to two inches, mainly on grassy surfaces. that will be the best place to see snow. increasing clouds late tonight, just chilly. lows in the 30s and downtown we're talking mid to upper 30s. some areas north and west will be around the freezing mark. by morning, mostly chilly. a better chance south of town. that's where the storm is coming from. temperatures in the 30s and 40s and by afternoon, a 40 to 45 colder than today. and winds kick in northeasterly at 10 as the storm gets off the carolina coast and that will spread colder air for us. so, on the impact meter and this storm is not worth the

meter. we'll give you an impact meter. we'll give it a 1. again, the timing could not be worse. that's the main concern with this. even if it were to rain, that would cause problems. how much snow will fall? this is one model we're looking at and i agree with this model. maybe 1, 2 inches of town. south of town, it is going to be tough to get anything more than a trace of snow. so the next three days, yellow alert tomorrow, rain to snow. building extra time tomorrow night. we recover nicely. and a mild finish to the week, sunshine 52. new clouds come in late and that is ahead of the arctic front. the next seven days, we're going to be in the 30s on saturday and on sunday. i'm not pulling snow out of the forecast yet. i think we'll have flurries, maybe snow showers, but we are waiting to see if a storm comes together. and it could be the arctic air moves in, we move out. and around 50 on tuesday with rain. >> blink your eyes and it's

gone. >> pretty much. >> kind of like the winter. >> all right top, thanks. we want to hear what you think, send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back.

let's update our top story on the standoff in southern california. >> former l.a. cop, christopher dorner surrounded by police in southern california. now reporting he saw tear gas canisters. the smoke you're seeing is the cabin engulfed in flame and smoke. evans is saying that thing is burningmadly right now, but no one is rushing in. dorner is presumably still inside. police have confirmed that one of the deputies involved in the gunfight with dorner earlier

tonight has now died. >> dorner said he was going to fight this until the end and it appears he's going to do so. he does not intend to come out without more people unscathed, killed, hurt. >> it's happening right now. the details are sparse, but we'll have more at 11:00, we are following it closely and hopefully we'll know more. >> we'll have more at 11:00. all of us wrapping all of this up for you tonight at 11:00. bye.

a serious security breach at the grammys. >> the grammy crasher tells "e.t." how he did it. i'm nancy o'dell. >> i'm rob marciano. >> no ticket. now fresh out of jail, how did this man get on stage with j. lo and adele? >> were you scared that you were going to get caught while you were doing this? sitting behind justin. on the carpet with nicole. >> say hi to your friends. >> hi. >> it's not the first time this guy made news. >> what the hell is your problem, buddy? the critic who called melissa mccarthy a critic breaks his silence. >> when you say things like hippo, that's just evil. from adele to kelly clarkson, why it pays big to be plus-sized in hollywood. the pope's surprised resignation. the church's sex abuse scandal. he